Sport climbing standards in HK took a big step forward this week, kicking off with Steve Townshend’s send of the Open Project at Bird’s Nest Crag at Central on Monday to give ‘Poison Ivy’, the first route graded F8b+ in Hong Kong.

Not to be outdone, the long time master of HK climbing Rocky Lok toped that today with a send of his project on Sok Kwu Buttress to give Shadow of Mountain at a mighty F8c! (well, in typical modest form Rocky said F8b+/8c but we’ll call it F8c for the time being)

These two routes are a massive step up from the previous high point of F8b, which had held firm for a number of years. They also have the added bonus of both looking awesome climbs.

Well done guys!